The mbaMission Podcast

Ep 60 | How I Decided Between MBA Programs

• mbaMission • Season 2 • Episode 60

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After navigating the rigorous MBA application process, receiving an acceptance from one of your target business school can be a huge relief. But what if you find yourself with offers from more than one of your target schools? Today we welcome back Austin Sandoval to the mbaMission podcast. Austin was accepted to multiple top-15 business schools and offered generous scholarships from each one. In this episode, Austin talks with Harold Simansky and Jeremy Shinewald about his receiving his MBA acceptances and shares his insights on weighing competing offers, negotiating scholarships, and ultimately making his final decision about where to earn his MBA.

00:00 How to choose the best business school for you
01:44 Researching MBA programs and understanding fit
05:25 Austin's use of onTrack by mbaMission
07:46 Comparing academic offerings
09:39 Weighing multiple MBA acceptances and scholarships
13:12 Making a decision 
20:41 Negotiating scholarship offers
22:05 Career outcomes and recruiting 
22:38 Choosing Duke Fuqua

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I I didn't want to be stuck, for a lack of better words, in a first year core curriculum. If I go to Dartmouth, I'll only be successful. Or if I go to UVA Dart, like I won't be successful. Like, that's not going through my head. To me, it was all fair game. As soon as you're accepted, truly, the tables turn. They want you to come and suddenly you're in the driver's seat. You're getting emails and phone calls weekly from current students, from alumni, from staff, like, "How can we talk to you to help you come?

After navigating the long and rigorous business school application process, receiving an acceptance for your target MBA program is a huge achievement. But what if you find yourself with offers from multiple target schools? With several top tier programs suddenly vying for your attention, the decision-making process can quickly become overwhelming. Each business school offers a unique combination of curriculum, culture, specializations, environment, so much more. All of which will shape your MBA experience in different ways. So, how do you make the right choice? How do you make your right choice? Today, we're excited to welcome back Austin Sandival, who was extremely thoughtful both in which schools he applied to and then in how he evaluated all of the programs he got into. Austin was admitted to multiple top 15 MBA programs and offered generous scholarships from each, including several full ride offers. Austin is here to share his insights on weighing competing offers, negotiating scholarships, and ultimately making his final decision about where to earn his MBA. Welcome back to the podcast, Austin. Austin, thanks again for being here with us today. So, why don't you help us understand a little bit what your process looked like in terms of how did you get to know the schools? How did you think about applying? Just how everything came together for you. Yeah. So, you know, through on track, you know, I there there's modules that talk about why this school and and why not this school. And initially, I wanted to go M7, Harvard, Stanford, Warren. I just feel like that's what everyone talks about, you know, M7, like there's so much presence. And so, before I even knew what any of those schools truly were about, um, that was like the goal. And you know, I start thinking through and then you start doing your research, start watching on track modules and it's like, hey, if you're not an analytical person or that or that quantitative, you know, maybe you shouldn't go to this school or if you're not a city person or if you don't like the freezing cold, you know, maybe you shouldn't go to this school. And so, um, things just started to click for me. I I realized that I wasn't a city person. I had no desire to be in Chicago or New York City. Um, I went and visited New York City, you know, I went and visited, um, Columbia Business School. I saw the Manhattanville campus and it was gorgeous. Um, but I just remember kind of taking a step back and being like, okay, like let's be real, right? Like business school isn't just, you know, the campus. It isn't just the buildings. You know, you got to think about the bigger city, like your life, your social life, you know, where you'll be living, where you'll go out, where you'll spend time with your significant other if you have one. And so, you know, I was looking around and I was like, I'm we're not city people. Um, so why am I going to apply to Columbia? Um, why am I going to apply to to Booth? Why am I going to, you know, and and so once I started checking off these city schools, you start to really dig deeper and you start thinking about, you know, UVA Darden and Dartmouth Tuck and and Duke Fugqua and I was applying to uh through the consortium. So, you know, I was I don't want to say limited cuz that's not a great word to put it, but there, you know, not every school is available through the consortium. HBS isn't um MIT isn't and so you know naturally those schools kind of weren't options and so you know I was focused on applying only through the consortium from a common app standpoint from a financial standpoint I wanted to put myself in the running for the consortium fellowship as well and so all those uh were big parts of it um and then you start digging deeper you know into the curriculum you know do I want to be at a case only school at UVA Arden do I want to be in a required first year curriculum um like Dartmouth Tuck and UVA Darden. Um or do I want to specialize in other um I don't know like minors or emphasis, whatever you you kind of want to call it. And so given I have a massive passion with leadership, given that I have a massive intentionality of taking electives across the campus, I felt like Fugqua allows that opportunity much earlier than some of the other schools. you know, I I didn't I wouldn't be stuck for my whole first year taking core classes, and I didn't want to do that to myself. Exciting news. You can now access OnTrack by MBA Mission for free. Take our 2-minute onboarding questionnaire to personalize your learning path. Choose the free plan and you'll have unlimited access to our complete modules on MBA application timelines, standardized testing, your professional background, community leadership, school selection, and more. You'll also get access to select lessons from our brainstorming, personal statement, essay, resume, and recommendation modules. It's a great introduction to the OnTrack platform and will help you jumpstart the MBA application process. Get started today at onTrack.bammission. NBA mission.com. If I can interject, I would just say that like, you know, the genesis of my relationship with with Austin is that I was absolutely blown away by his story, by his personal story, his personal journey um really from birth until until he started applying. I mean, I I read this, you know, if you listen to the LA to the first episode, I read his his life story, which he wrote, and was just really really gripped. And um and um you know, we decided that at that point on track was a was a new program, and I wanted to find a way to help Austin and I I did end up doing a little bit of pinch hitting here and there on his applications, but really most of most of the interaction he had with the firm was through on track and a little bit through me and our our our emails. Um and and there's this module for I think 17 different schools and and he's right, you know, we go through why you should go to the school, why you shouldn't go to the school and that's there like we're not cheerleading and the curriculum you're saying like the the points about the curriculum and about career opportunities and then there's like a freestyle section. every school gets a couple of of of lessons um you know highlighting a tuck was like you know things like the winter carnival or or I believe experiential learning and and so every school gets gets what's what's specific to them. One candidate actually said to me and this I'm quite proud of said to me it was it was better uh than the school's website as he prepared for his interactions with admissions officers. So it's like it's really really thorough and that's only those are only like 17 modules out of the 80 plus modules and you get served only the ones that you need. So like you didn't unless you elected you didn't get the if you weren't applying to Chicago Booth you didn't get Chicago Booth. It was all kind of customized to you and um I'm just glad that you that you're not only the key the key isn't isn't listening and watching the lessons it's absorbing. And so I'm proud that you made a critical choice whereas I think other people don't really say like okay these are like you can say to applicants all the time like these are the things that you're telling me you're telling me you want this kind of school like yeah but I really want this school that's ranked a little higher and and for some people rankings can be the number one thing but to really know yourself and to know your partner where where she'd be happy and um to know what you want out of school's program like to really find fit is something else. Um, so, so, um, Austin, just very quickly here, you did have an undergraduate degree in business. Do I understand correctly? Correct. I I've certainly had experience with clients who come with an undergraduate degree in business. They go to a school and they recognize that for the first year, if there is in fact a core that they cannot place out of any of those courses, it is a very boring year, for lack of better term, it is simply a year where they spin their wheels. So, it's great to think about how thoughtful you were about that. recognizing you sort of get those behind you very quickly and then you go off and do a lot of electives. 100%. You know, and another thing that I felt like Entra does such a great job at is when it comes to writing the essays, you know, you give examples of what's a good essay versus a bad essay. And that for me was transformational. And then when it comes to interviewing, what you said earlier that OnTrack is truly better than a website because I mean at the end of the day, a website's static. like you read what you read. But on on track, we have Jeremy, you know, narrating the the program and talking about the highs and, you know, really highlighting it. And so that was also very uh real and you know, at the end of the day, you trust NBA mission and you trust Jeremy and we trust that you do your research and you know, you run with that. And that was just you're getting spoonfed everything you need to know. Like why do I need to go read the website if you're going to capture, you know, more? I think the goal is to like crystallize and give you only what you need to really really get to know and then then you can build on it a little bit as I think I think you know the the school's websites are so sprawling and different research institutes and and different like there's just that no one is critically evaluating the information or I don't believe that a lot in a lot of schools there there are dead links on their on the school's web pages there are old professors that are gone like it's it's crazy and we just did so much of that homework for applicants so it was awesome what Um what so we we should probably introduce so you I mean yes okay we've spoiler alert we've already established you went to Fugqua you're going to Fugqua but you did have choices and um and let's talk about comparing those choices and how difficult that was for you but one thing I well maybe I'll come back to it I do want to also know about the role of your partner because having a partner on campus does make things a little bit a little bit different um% and and you guys are packing up like a week to drive it's you your wife and your two dogs do I understand correct What kind of dogs? Uh, two Australian shepherds. Australian shepherd. Not not small dogs. Yeah. Yeah. I know they're big. Um, no. 100% thinking about that, right? Like at the end of the day, at the end of the day, she would have gone where I went. Like she's all for me and I love her for that. However, with that being said, you know, I also wanted to not take her andor be somewhere that um from an income standpoint or getting a job would be maybe difficult. and we at the time didn't know whether she would be able to keep her remote job. And so, um, if she wouldn't have been able to, you know, from a risk standpoint, would being in New Hampshire, I guess, be the best place to find a career? Um, she doesn't have, you know, an education or or a big sort of breath of experience to just start applying and landing any remote roles. She works at a church, so it's, you know, she's also, you know, out of respect, limited in kind of that sort of industry. Um, again, she would have gone anywhere. But then just thinking about taking a step back, right? Durham, it's a little more bigger. It's a little more lively. There's Raleigh down the street. Um, so we're we're we're now comparing obviously just but but for for those who are need a little context, we're we're comparing Darbatuck where you got in also with cash, right? you got in with $150,000 at Darbac and 140 at Duke and uh and and so we're talking about kind of like an important consideration which is you know the portability of jobs and and the ability for like you know the the the research trial area is a much bigger area than than Tuck and if you're going with a with a with a partner at that that is an important consideration like it's a very important practical consideration the employability of another um and so for full context you got into Darden with about 170 170 okay full tuition fees and and uh and we got one other school was Cornell Cornell with with about 100 and I didn't go back and negotiate I kind of just you know once for me it was like for me we we had a threshold for it was like around 50 60% financially and if we didn't get that money you know I would have been in a huge decision of like do I even go to school is it worth it is it worth it like this is this is truly a big deal so once we blew that decision out the water and we had full rides. I was like, "This is so stressful now." Cuz this is a first world problem. Like, this is this isn't something stressful as in like, "Oh my gosh, like if I don't if I go to Dartmouth, I'll only be successful, or if I go to UVA Dart, like I won't be successful." Like, that that's not going through my head. At the end of the day, it it to me it was all fair game. No matter what school I went to, I would still have to show up, deliver, and execute. I would still have to show up to career fairs. I would still have to, you know, apply and and lean on my career that I've had up till this date. Um, so as long as the school was providing the resources for me and just giving me access to a company, that's all I needed and that's all I want. And you know, you obsess over the Harvard, Stanford, Whartons of the world, but it's like Mckenzie's coming to all these schools. Like they're hiring the same amount from all these schools, right? Like I'm not missing anything. So who So tell us a little bit about about you know your your process of of decision- making and like how the school's recording you because the table turns quickly, right? Did did you go to all of their all of the welcome weekends? Let me interject very quickly here because that's something that our clients simply don't understand. As soon as you're accepted truly the tables turn, they want you to come yield. They worry about the yield. They they're very worried about the yield. Meaning if they accept you, they really want you to come and suddenly you're in the driver's seat. What does it, you know, what does that really mean? It's overwhelming. Like I mean, you're getting emails and phone calls weekly from who? From from current students, from alumni, from staff, like how can we talk to you to help you come? And it like I was I feel bad cuz I couldn't even respond to everyone cuz I'm just like this is this is wild. Like I need to mute everyone and think about this person. Do you mind if I contextualize this again for one second? It's like you went from like and and you were you're candid about your your GRE struggles and and I think it's important to to as a I mean people should be very inspired to know that you can you can have you know a lower GRE and it's an amazing story and now you're like you're like I might not get in at all because GR now you're like I've got too many people calling me I can't even respond to them. And let me add right like usually people say if you're if you're within the 80 percentile range um you might be safe. Of course you want to be above the average. 299 is well below and outside of that 80% range. Let me also highlight that, right? Like we're not talking like I am I might argue I might literally have one of the lowest test scores in all of these schools, right? So, not that I'm proud of that, but like that's a real thing. No, in fact, let me turn it around again in the sense of I'll have a client come to me and they'll say, "Listen, I have a rarely do I say 299. I have a 305 for GRE." and they say, "Listen, I know we're above average, but I look at the, you know, the range of scores and I see people with a lower score than me." And I said, "That's absolutely true. There's no question about it." But then I say, "Think about what that person looks like. Think about the person on the lower end. What do they look like?" And Austin, you can go back to our earlier podcast. Uh the your background is so rich. The challenges you've faced are really so overwhelming for many people. All that you have achieved in gives you the liberty to have a lower Jerry score. other people have to really think to themselves, have I shown the same sort of grit that someone like Austin showed. I I think, you know, I'm I'm I'm receiving all these phone calls, um these emails. It it's insane. And it's this was the I applied round one through the consortium, so it's um it's a holidays, you know, and I go back home for Christmas and New Year's and my families are like, "Wow, like they're so proud and so impressed and like what are you gonna do?" like none of these schools are close by anyway. So, it's not like they're really thinking about like, hey, go here. It's closer to us. Like they're all East Coast schools. Um, and we wanted that. But, um, you know, I'm in the holidays and I'm really like I don't want to say um like I wasn't able to fully celebrate because in my mind I was so torn and so like I need to pick a school before I can tell people like I'm going here. Let's like put it behind me. And so it it just, you know, you sleep on it. I prayed on it a lot and you know I'm really thinking about and then I take a step back right finances aside thankfully God willing that's been covered. So you know where would I just be happiest? Where would I enjoy myself? What what school is going to just give me um a good time? Like I'm I'm so grateful for San Diego State University. Like I had so much fun there and it was an awesome experience and you know I want to have the same rich exciting fun experience at business school. You know it's not all just about the classroom. And it's not all just about career, while that is absolutely priority, but once you start checking off some of these major items, um then it's just it gets personal. Where are you going to feel best with the weather as well? Like New Hampshire is is a little cold from San Diego, right? Though you did spend time in Oslo, I did. Correct. So So in terms of prioritization, we've got we've got we know that you want to you want to be in a on a you're you you crossed off cities. you know, you want to be in in a on a college campus and um you know, we know you want something. We weren't sure exactly um if your wife's job was going to be portable, so we wanted some some more opportunities. That was a consideration. Uh I think, you know, also flexibility curriculum early on um was important to you. Yeah, 100%. Flexibility curriculum, right? Like I don't want to be given I'm a business background, you know, I work in professional services consulting already. I didn't want to be stuck, for a lack of better words, in a first year core curriculum. Take an account, you know, UVA Garden case study as well. Like, do I want to do case? Like, I don't know if I want to do case. We do 100% 100% of the time, right? I'm down for cases and I know that'll be involved in some classes, but do I really want to like not I didn't want to have not and anxiety is a bad word to think about it, but if I don't prep for the case every day or however often they happen, I don't want to show up to class every single day like I might get cold called and I didn't read the case because am I going to read the case every single night? And do people I don't know but I just I don't want to think about that, right? Like they do for that reason because they don't want to be cold called the next day. There is there is a forcing mechanism. Correct. meant I would have had to be and I'm not saying I don't have to be on my toes at FUA that's not what I'm saying but it was just a different like I don't you know I'm already I just don't need that right now. Um and then Dartmouth Tuck first year core curriculum and so um so it was really a two- horse race at the end of the day. It was it was because cuz the money was relatively similar. You actually took a little less money from Duke. I did. Um and and uh but it was really a two- horse race between How quickly did you get down to two? Were you like if I get into these two it's going to be tough or was it a was it a three- horse race for a while? Was it It was a three-h horse race for a while. It was a Darden UVA was UVA tuck and Fugqua and then once the money came down once I attended the diversity weekend at FQA, it was FUA from there on. But then when they cut me short a little bit of money, I was like this is in like dang am I really going to turn down you know this full full ride. Um, but then I started taking a step back, you know, here I I bought a car when I moved back from Oslo, a nice car, and I'm obsessed with cars, but I took a humongous car loan that I'm still paying off till this day. Right. And I had no hesitation. I didn't even think twice about taking out this car loan. Financially, not smart at all. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Um, but I I had no hesitation. Right. And the loan that I would take out to go to FUA is like maybe a fourth of this car loan. Okay. With, you know, higher career progression probably after and probably more income later. And I think the other thing too is, you know, sometimes I feel like people focus on business school as a 2-year transaction. Like this money is going to cost me for 2 years. But the way I look at it is it's a whole life decision. Yeah. It's 100%. It's forever. And this is this is a common critique of ours. We're like, you know, there's some sort of market dislocation on this one because every MBA out there or virtually every MBA out there says, you know, it really pays off in the long term and every student is thinking about they will get my first job. Correct. Correct. And and you start hearing that and it's like, okay, well, why am I stressing then, you know, for this like so fixated on the first two years, right? Um. Right. But you did go back to Duke with your with all your scholarship and you said to them, can you match it? Can you help me out here? I did. I went back. I went and match it. Um and yeah, they they raised it. Uh got me really close to a full ride. You know, I came down to like maybe 85 90% coverage here. But Right. Um yeah, I I've had that experience as well where clients will say to me, Harold, do you think I can go back? And I said, sure, go back and talk to them. It's a human process. Correct. And they they're not going to be punitive about it. They're not going to be like, you're you're I think people are worried they're going to offend and like their their acceptance is going to be rescended or something like that. And I went back to them twice. Yeah. Wow. They came back and didn't give me the hundred and I went, "Let's try again." You know, I'm going to go until you say no and I'll be respectful about it, but you know, I went back and I I have to believe, I don't know this. Um, but it came down to my test score. I'm sure they have all these metrics from a merit standpoint. Um, so they probably saw that and they were like, "Look, you get that a little higher." Um, and they they told me they were like, "We won't guarantee you the money, but if you can retake your test again and get it a little higher, um, it's going to really help your scholarship negotiation." And I'm in this crossroads of like, I just put my life and soul through this process for a full year and a half. Like, do I do I really want to do something that gives me anxiety or I just don't enjoy like and I was just like, I'm not like I'm I don't know. And who knows, maybe I could have gone for a fifth attempt. And good for you. Yeah. But I said in chart and like how how how important were how closely did you look at like career outcomes and employers was that a factor at all or you just like did you have faith that you'll get where you want to go? I briefly looked once I saw that tech companies are going I said let's do it. Um I didn't really look at the numbers because they're almost and I don't know this could be naive of me but they all feel the same to me like all the top employers are going to all the top schools and you know a level one associate at a management consulting firm might make relatively the same. And you know once I saw that I just felt like I would be safe. Yeah. Um we just did a podcast in terms of we called it the M8 schools. What is going to be the next school beyond the M7 and probably the school that I think we all agreed to was going to be Duke or there was some great momentum around Duke. And part of the reason for that is I think the what do we say the average the highest average salary is actually at Duke. No it was I think it was the highest average outside the M7. And then I think it the other one was it had the highest the lowest accept rate and the highest yield among among the and higher than some M7. Yeah. Higher than some of the like 19% um acceptance rate and I think in their like high50s yield which is insane and I get it cuz they they not higher they recruit so much on culture on this team fuca thing. You know, you hear it, you know, everyone talks about it, but when I went to the diversity week and you start meeting people like it is real. Like people were like, "What can I do to support you?" I It just was there was there any particular bell or whistle that the school offered? You're like, "I can't get that in another school." You know, that trip abroad, that action-based learning program, whatever it might be. Yeah. The leadership and ethics um emphasis. And then being the Coach K uh FUCL impact scholar, I just felt like those to be able to specialize my NBA in that was was massive. And I don't know um you know if UVA Darden allows specializations you know they might but Fugqua does and for me that was that was big. I want to study that. I want to meet Coach K. I want to be all into leadership and ethics and learn it learn it learn it and live it. And I get to do that you know two years. So how active is coach K in that in that program? Um so it's named after him. He shows up um I don't know how many times but he'll show up and speak. He'll mentor. Um, but there's a whole like advisory board of leadership, you know, thought leaders across the world and in the sports world and just real leaders that are involved in this program. Um, teaching leadership, you know, at FUA and that that's awesome. Sign me up. You know, I want to be that person in the front row seat like listening to someone inspiring. There's and I've had this with other clients. There's certainly something to be said for schools that really want you there. Yes. That really want you there. I think that really does count. And they, you know, they, like I said, right, you're getting the emails, they're calling you, but it just I felt like when they were um when they were talking to me, I felt the genuine like, dude, I he was like like and I don't want to say the name, but he was like, "Dude, I want you here, man. Like, I I I want you here. I know you're going to be great here." Like, I know. That's it. I just feel like there's so there are so many connection points. I I guess you just you've just been a busy man. But yeah, I don't know. Maybe there is like there's there's a partner at my firm who went to uh FUA um has an MBA there. So I connected with him at the workshop weekend. I met a few alumni who I kind of stayed in touch with. You know, one of them even offered to help me renegotiate. So when I That's interesting. When I first negotiated and they came back and raised it a little bit and I told y'all that I went back for a second attempt, I had a FUA alum um and not like a recent alum, but someone who I think graduated class of 07 or08 uh VP at a big, you know, firm right now and and she was like, "What can I do to help you, you know, try and get more money so that you can so that you can go?" And I was like, "That's insane. like I met you for maybe an hour, right? You know, and you're like, and at the time, this is also crazy, through that weekend of diversity, I I didn't know that I was accepted yet. And so, she was like, if you don't get in for some crazy reason, like, she's already going to bat for me. Like, she's going to go to bat for me. And I was just blown away. Um, and so I'm super thankful that I was able to like tell her, you know, I got in. Um, but just I remember leaving there being like, I feel so taken care of here. So, you're moving there in a week. Yeah. You obviously understand where you're living. You got to live somewhere dog friendly. Yeah. Or do you know if you're are you are you in uh a little student village there? Do you know like do you know what do you know about your surroundings and what your life's going to be like there? Yeah. Well, minimal. Um how close are you to campus? Um we're very close. We're probably like a 5-minute drive. So, it's my understanding that a lot of students live on 9inth Street. Um I think 50% maybe 40% of FUA students live in 9inth Street. And that's usually where kind of the bars are out. Uh the social life's there. And so, you know, me and my wife, we didn't want to be on that street. We wanted to be close to it, but we didn't necessarily want to be able to walk outside and and kind of especially for her. Like, she's not really big into that scene. Um I usually am. And so, um yeah, of course, out of respect, I was like, "Sure, like, let's go somewhere that you'll be happy." So, we're in um downtown Durham. There's all these new beautiful complexes. They're massive. They're friendly. You know, there's a ton of FA students as well. I think there's like 20% of FCA people in there. um dog friendly. I think I said that. And and financially and it's still a five minute five minute drive from campus. You know, I'm a walk from the baseball stadium. You know, I can I can walk there. I'm obsessed with sports, obsessed with baseball. I played that my whole life. And you know, we can walk to downtown. There's more restaurants. It's a little more social. Um not so like fuca focused, I guess. And so that was big. Um and I know it was big obviously having your wife with you or partner with you. And I think that's something that people just probably don't give as much thought to. The reality is it is a twoperson experience. It could be something that's monumental for you know both of you really starting point of your life in many ways. And she came with me to admitted students weekend with I there was that reason. I was like hey this is both of us and like I went to work the diversity weekend and knew I'm a love it ear. So I was like I I hope when you come with me to admitted students weekend that you you know hopefully when we leave you're like that was awesome. Was there was there good partner outreach for Oh yeah, a huge I I mean they had a whole devoted partner curriculum. Oh wow. Through admitted students weekend like they had their own people and there was all these other partners and I want to say FUA has one of the higher partner percentage of students. I think it's around the 30% of of students that go to FUA have a partner. Um, and so she left there, you know, being like, "Oh my gosh, like I have friends and we're texting and like they're already saying like, "When are you going to move here?" Like, she knows more people than you do. It's probably does. And, you know, that was just so important for me cuz the last thing I wanted to do was like me having the time of my life or me in school and, you know, here's my partner, you know, just not feeling at home or or not. If I let her really have final say on like the place, you know, of course, like we agreed to it, right? But really let her drive that. I was like, "Where do you want? Here's our budget, you know, of these apartments. Pick like I'll go wherever we go." And so let her kind of drive that one. That's great. That is really smart. Really smart. Then we road trip. Um, you know, we leave San Diego. We're hitting the road. Still don't know. I haven't even mapped that out yet. Um, so we're leaving Thursday. The goal is to get there by Sunday. And then, um, you know, I'll be in Colorado the week before for work, which is crazy. And then 2 days after moving into Durham, I will be uh getting shipped off to DC for consortium event. Um so sorry that's MLT and then I'll be shipped off to consortium straight from DC to Indianapolis for the orientation program. So I will only have been Durham for two days and then I got to come back and settle. Okay. It's amazing. You're a busy man. Yeah. It's a whirlwind. I mean it's been a whirlwind. It is absolutely a whirlwind. How much did it affect you that Duke lost in the final four and and Cooper flag is leaving? Gosh, did that make you pause and listen? That was tough. I That was upsetting. Yeah. Yes. There we go. They That was Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was really something. But hopefully uh actually as I say this as a Carolina fan, so maybe not so hopefully Duke will find his way back in in terms of the very top of the NCAA. I hope so. What's funny is right, I went to San Diego State and as a Carolina fan, they beat they destroyed San Diego State in the March Madness tournament. So, yeah, that also just getting Yeah. You say the Aztecs. The Aztecs. Correct. Glasses. How much uh how much Duke paraphernalia do you own at this point? Oh my gosh. I have three hoodies and a polo, I think. And they sent me a hat. I even had a friend text me like, "Wow, like you really are all in here." I was like, "That's embarrassing. That's amazing. That's great, though. Well, listen, Austin, thank you very much for sharing your story with us. It was fantastic. Amazing journey. Really something by all means and good luck. Listen, we're going to be keeping up with you, of course, but we really appreciate your time and and thank you both. You know, thank you for taking the time to read, you know, the the who would have thought that a free consultation would have turned into, you know, the the blessing experience of getting to know you, getting to know you, um, and just being guided through you and on track and just having you by my side. I mean, like that, who would have thought that something free um for 30 minutes would have turned into this? And so, just truly, thank you so much. I'm I'm speechless. I mean, I'm speechless because I'm I'm far more inspired by you and your journey. And that's what led me to want to be as generous as I could as I could possibly be just to be a humbly be a small piece of this story is incredible to me. So, thank you for for and thank you for coming all the way from San Diego to join us. It's we're very very lucky to have you here in person. and it wouldn't have been the same remotely or anything like that. You've shared so much and uh it's just been a joy to get to know you. Absolutely. Really. Again, thank you very much, Austin. Thank you. Of course. If you want to be one of our success stories, sign up for a free consultation with a member of our full-time MBA admissions team. 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